PG&E, San Jose Rotary volunteers teach kids to fish at Milpitas lake

Posted:
05/02/2014 10:43:44 AM PDT

Updated:
05/13/2014 03:00:46 AM PDT

In honor of National Volunteer Month in April, Pacific Gas & Electric, Co. paired up with the San Jose Rotary Club to teach 200 local inner-city third-graders the art of fishing April 26 at Sandy Wool Lake at Ed R. Levin County Park.

The fishing excursion was one of 100 projects that PG&E volunteers engaged in throughout Northern and Central California in April. The volunteers at Saturday's event helped kids set up tackle, bait hooks and net the feisty rainbow trout.

According to PG&E spokesperson Monica Tell, the story behind teaching the children how to fish comes from 1995, when San Jose third-graders, who were playing at recess, saw a drive-by shooting outside their school and were severely traumatized.

"Brian Allen, a member of the Rotary Club of San Jose, heard about the shooting and wanted to help. So he organized a day of fishing for the students to create something positive to offset what they had seen," Tell said. "The idea eventually caught on as many good ideas do. What was intended as a one-time event spread to 300 other Rotary clubs across the country. And every year for nearly 20 years, the San Jose Rotary chapter has organized the same outing for three elementary schools in the city."

On Saturday the roughly 40 PG&E volunteers and the nearly 200 students, along with teachers and parents, came to Milpitas, where they received a take-home tackle box and a fishing rod, before receiving instructions and adult buddies with whom they spent several hours fishing at Sandy Wool Lake.